Mike Christensen, Author at All Mississippi Baseball

18 Apr

hits wanted

Cody Milligan, the Mississippi Braves’ leadoff batter, has been setting the table with regularity. The M-Braves are looking for some hitters to clean up after him. The M-Braves, back in town tonight to start their second homestand of 2023, are hitting just .203 as a team. They’ve scored 41 runs but 11 of those came in one game and nine in another. The result of this lack of consistent thump is a 3-6 record that they’ll take into tonight’s 6:05 contest against old Southern League rival Montgomery at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Milligan, a returnee from 2022, is hitting .367 with a .513 on-base percentage. He has touched the plate 11 times. No other regular in tonight’s lineup is batting above .233. Cal Conley, the highest rated prospect (No. 13 on Atlanta’s list), is off to a sluggish start in his Double-A debut, batting .206. Slugger Drew Lugbauer, an M-Braves vet, has three homers but only two other hits. The pitching has been decent, though only one starter (Tanner Gordon) has registered a win. Alec Barger, Victor Vodnik (the Braves’ No. 11 prospect) and Domingo Gonzalez have pitched well out of the bullpen. Montgomery (6-3) leads the league in homers (13) and is second in runs with 54. The Biscuits, a Tampa Bay affiliate, have a 4.44 staff ERA. P.S. On this date in 1946, Jackie Robinson made his debut in “organized” baseball, going 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs for the International League Montreal Royals, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team managed by Mississippi native Clay Hopper. Robinson broke the major league color line the next season.

18 Apr

the power of power

Hunter Renfroe is a good outfielder with a great arm. The former Mississippi State star also runs pretty well for a 230-pound dude. But never mind that. It’s his ability to hit dingers that grabs our attention. The Crystal Springs native hit his 161st big league homer on Monday, a three-run blast in the first inning that boosted the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-4 win over Boston on Patriots Day at Fenway Park. Renfroe has moved past Bill Melton and Frank White (both with 160) and into eighth place on the all-time homer list of Mississippi natives in the majors. (Dmitri Young, with 171, is next in Renfroe’s sights.) Renfroe was a power prodigy in high school, belting an MAIS record 20 bombs for Copiah Academy back in 2010. He went deep 16 times as a junior at State in 2013, earning All-America honors and then getting drafted in the first round by San Diego. He continued to rake in the minors, belting 77 homers over parts of four seasons before his first big league call-up in 2016. He got his first MLB bomb in his fourth game. In his five full seasons in the majors (not counting 2020), Renfroe has hit 26, 26, 33, 31 and 29 homers. Oddly enough, he has been traded three times since 2019. He’ll likely never be a .300 hitter, but he has improved in that area the previous two years, batting .259 for Boston in 2021 and .255 for Milwaukee last season. The Angels dealt three young pitchers to the Brewers to acquire Renfroe in November, hoping he can help power them into the postseason for the first time since 2014. With four homers in 16 games, he is off to a strong start.

17 Apr

poll positions

East Central Community College, which has surged to the top of the MACCC standings, has finally cracked the Top 20 of the NJCAA Division II poll. The Warriors, 17-3 in the league and 27-14 overall, are ranked 17th, fourth among the four state jucos in the poll. Pearl River, 17-5 in conference and the defending national champ, is No. 3, Meridian No. 5 and Jones No. 15. Heads up: Pearl River visits Decatur on Tuesday for a rather large doubleheader; the jucos always play single-day twinbills. In the last week, ECCC has swept Delta (at Moorhead), swept Jones (at Ellisville) and split with Itawamba. Neal Holliman’s Warriors also have registered sweeps against Hinds, Northwest, Copiah-Lincoln and Northeast. Eli Collins, a former Northeast Jones High star, is batting .445 with 40 RBIs, 55 runs and 25 steals. Brandon’s Mo Little leads the team with nine homers and 58 RBIs while batting at a .352 clip. On the bump, Luke Cooley (Wayne Academy) is 4-0 with a 3.29 ERA and David Burton (Newton County) has five saves. The team’s success really shouldn’t be a surprise: The Warriors have won three state titles in the last 10 years. … William Carey University, 31-9 heading into a home game today against Mobile, is 31-9 (13-4 SSAC) and ranked 16th in the latest NAIA coaches poll. The Crusaders swept a doubleheader from No. 7 Mobile on Friday.

17 Apr

noteworthy

Three Mississippi college products currently rank among the top 10 hitters in Triple-A: Southern Miss’ Chuckie Robinson, Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum and MSU’s Hunter Stovall. Robinson, who made his MLB debut last year with Cincinnati, is second in the International League with a .429 average (and a nine-game hit streak) at Louisville. Mangum, with Miami’s Jacksonville team, is fourth in the IL at .412. He hit his first homer of the year on Sunday. Stovall, playing at Albuquerque in the Colorado system, is 10th in the Pacific Coast League stats with a .368 average. … Other hot hitters of note: Hattiesburg’s Joe Gray, Jr., at .344 for Milwaukee’s High-Class A Midwest League club, and Ole Miss alum Tim Elko, a 2022 draftee, at .364 for the Chicago White Sox’s Low-A Carolina League team. … Ex-MSU standout Dakota Hudson, demoted to the minors by St. Louis to start this season, is 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA in three starts for Triple-A Memphis. … Former Ole Miss ace Lance Lynn, scuffling at 0-1, 7.31, with six homers allowed in 16 innings for the scuffling White Sox (6-10), goes to the bump today against Philadelphia at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago. … Bad news for Brandon Woodruff and the Milwaukee Brewers. The former State star’s stay on the injured list will be a lengthy one after he was diagnosed with a subscapular strain in his right shoulder. “I’m not going to rush this,” the Brewers ace said in published reports. Woodruff, a two-time All-Star, is 1-0 with a 1.79 ERA in two starts this season and is 42-25 career for Milwaukee. … USM alum Matt Wallner was returned to the minors after getting very little playing time with Minnesota; he went 0-for-8 with a walk during his brief call-up. Wallner debuted for the Twins last season, batting .228 with two homers in 57 at-bats, and remains one of their top prospects. … Former Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz has had his rehab progress halted because of a neck strain. The veteran lefty, on the shelf for San Diego since late 2021, was penciled in for a rehab appearance at Triple-A last Thursday but was scratched.

17 Apr

a battle royale

A statue honoring the legendary Ron Polk was unveiled with much fanfare on Friday. Saturday’s game drew an NCAA record on-campus crowd of 16,423 at Dudy Noble Field. It seemed only fitting that Sunday would provide something special: a compelling rubber game in a drama-filled series in Starkville between Mississippi State and Ole Miss, college baseball’s last two national champions.
Behind a tiebreaking, seventh-inning home run by Hunter Hines — his third bomb of the series — and clutch relief work from Aaron Nixon, MSU won 5-3 Sunday to take the series and cap what really was a Super Bulldog Weekend.
“What an unbelievable job we do there at the end of the game. (Nixon), that was impressive,” said State coach Chris Lemonis. “Some big at-bats. Dakota (Jordan), huge swing (on a third-inning homer). Hunter Hines … to be able to have an approach on a guy like that (Ole Miss’ Jackson Kimbrell) and hit that ball out, man, that is huge.”
Never mind that the teams entered the weekend wallowing at the bottom of the SEC standings. The three games drew some 44,000 fans and produced one thrilling moment after another. MSU emerges at 22-15 overall and 5-10 in the SEC, perhaps building some momentum for the long stretch run ahead. Ole Miss is 20-16, 3-12 SEC, with LSU lurking next weekend. If there is some consolation for the Rebels, they were 18-17 and 6-9 at this point in 2022, and we know how that season ended.
Games 1 and 2 were one-run affairs not settled until the ninth inning. Ole Miss won Friday’s opener 3-2 behind the pitching of Jack Dougherty and Mitch Murrell and homers from Jacob Gonzalez and Kemp Alderman. Down 3-1, MSU got a two-out homer in the ninth from Hines before Murrell closed out the three-hitter.
The pitching woes that have plagued both clubs this year were evident in Game 2. The Bulldogs’ Nate Dohm blew a save in the top of the ninth, and Ole Miss freshman Sam Tookoian then blew a save in the bottom half. MSU won 8-7 on a two-run, walk-off single by the dynamic freshman Jordan, triggering a wild celebration on the field and in the stands. (Yes, even Dak Prescott was going nuts.) Colton Ledbetter hit two clutch homers for State in Saturday’s game, and Hines added another.
On Sunday, Jordan gave State a 3-0 lead with a home run in the third inning off Ole Miss starter J.T. Quinn. Freshman switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje, who started for the Bulldogs, took a shutout into the sixth. Ole Miss made it 3-1 in that inning on an RBI ground out by Andy Calarco, the last batter Cijntje faced.
“That was impressive to go out there and do that,” Lemonis said of Cijntje’s performance. “I’ll tip my hat. I know that’s a rival, but there are some good hitters in that (Ole Miss) lineup, and, man, you just controlled it. It was poise. It was command.”
The Rebels cut it to 3-2 in the seventh on a walk, a single and a wild pitch by reliever K.C. Hunt. On came Nixon, who yielded an RBI hit to Alderman. It was the only hit Nixon allowed. He escaped the seventh with a double-play ball and then retired the last six Rebels in succession. The junior from Texas, who also tossed a scoreless inning on Saturday, now has an 0.84 ERA over eight appearances.
Hines, a sophomore out of Madison Central who has 17 homers on the year, seized the spotlight in the bottom of the seventh, blasting a two-out, two-run shot to right field off left-hander Kimbrell. The roars at Dudy Noble were deafening, and there were more of the same when Nixon retired Rebels star Gonzalez on a line drive for the last out.

15 Apr

not to be overlooked

The return of Seiya Suzuki to the lineup and the return of Cody Bellinger to Dodger Stadium generated much of the buzz for the Chicago Cubs on Friday night. But when the game was done, Justin Steele deserved his share. The former George County High star shackled the Los Angeles Dodgers over seven innings as the Cubs took an 8-2 victory. “Steely looked phenomenal, really pounded the zone. Thought he was dominant,” Cubs manager David Ross told the Chicago Sun-Times. Steele allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out eight. “I was just sticking to my strengths,” said Steele, who commanded his four-seamer and slider well all night. The left-hander improved to 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts. Now entering his fourth MLB season, Steele (career ERA: 3.32) is an emerging ace for the Cubs as they look to contend in the National League Central. … Also earning shout-outs in MLB: DeSoto Central alum Austin Riley, who hit career home run No. 100 (in his 464th game) as Atlanta pounded Kansas City. Riley’s third homer of the season was one of five the first-place Braves hit at Kauffman Stadium. … Ex-Mississippi State star Nathaniel Lowe drove in three runs and extended his hit streak to nine games to help first-place Texas take down Houston in an American League West clash. Lowe has 13 RBIs, tied for sixth in the AL.

14 Apr

whatever happened to …

Bobby Bradley, the erstwhile big leaguer from Gulfport, has signed with the Charleston (W.Va.) Dirty Birds of the independent Atlantic League. The lefty-hitting slugger, 26, was Cleveland’s opening day first baseman in 2022 but wound up being released out of the minors last August. Bradley was drafted in the third round out of Harrison Central High in 2014 and was ranked among Cleveland’s top prospects during his climb to the majors. He debuted in 2019. But he didn’t make enough consistent contact to stick in The Show, batting just .199 with 17 homers in parts of three seasons. He hit .246 with 163 homers and 539 RBIs in the minors, belting 33 homers in Triple-A in 2019. Many former big leaguers populate Atlantic League rosters, and Mississippi natives Stan Cliburn and Barry Lyons are managers in the league. The season starts April 28. Don’t be surprised if Bradley is among the league home run leaders.

14 Apr

watch for it

There are compelling reasons to focus on Starkville and Hattiesburg this weekend but tonight, at least, cast a glance at Orlando, Fla. John Rhys Plumlee, the former Oak Grove High and Ole Miss standout, will play a baseball game for Central Florida and then rush over to the football field to play quarterback in the Knights’ spring game. The remarkably athletic Plumlee played both sports in high school and again at UM before transferring to Central Florida. Obtuse NCAA rules kept him from playing baseball for the Knights in 2022, but the outfielder has emerged as one of the club’s better players this spring, batting .302 with five homers and 12 RBIs in 32 games. As the UCF quarterback in 2022, Plumlee rushed for 861 yards, threw for 2,586 and accounted for 25 touchdowns as he steered the Knights to the American Athletic Conference title game. And, yes, he also plays a mean piano. P.S. Shout-outs to Brent Rooker and Spencer Turnbull in MLB. Mississippi State alum Rooker hit two homers for Oakland on Wednesday and is 6-for-12 with three bombs in his last three games. Madison Central product Turnbull, roughed up in his first two outings of the season for Detroit, beat Toronto, throwing five innings and yielding a lone run while punching out six.

13 Apr

two weeks notice

Two weeks — 14 days — into the MLB season, the Atlanta Braves are living up to their billing as one of the best teams — and Austin Riley is living up to his billing as one of the best players. The former DeSoto Central High standout, a 2022 All-Star, went 2-for-3 on Wednesday to lift his average to .340 as the Braves beat Cincinnati and improved to 9-4, best mark in the National League. Riley has two homers, seven RBIs and eight runs, having started every game at third base and in the 3-hole in the lineup. Hunter Renfroe, the Crystal Springs native and Mississippi State alum, also has gotten off to a hot start with yet another new team. He is batting .295 with three homers and nine RBIs as a middle-of-the-order bat for the Los Angeles Angels, who have broken out at 7-5. Ex-MSU star Adam Frazier, now with Baltimore, is hitting .273 for his new club; he earned the distinction as the first Mississippian to homer in 2023, going yard on April 2 for his only bomb to date. Nathaniel Lowe, a State alum, went deep for Texas in a loss on Wednesday and is batting .260 with two homers and 10 RBIs. Brent Rooker, the former Bulldogs slugger, got a rare start for Oakland on Wednesday, batting cleanup, and hit a three-run homer in the first inning to help the woeful A’s beat Baltimore. The much-traveled Rooker is batting .294. Former Ole Miss standout Chad Smith, just called up from Triple-A, got the win for the A’s with two innings of scoreless relief. Several Mississippi-connected pitchers have scuffled. Madison Central alum Spencer Turnbull, who had not pitched in 666 days before his 2023 debut, is 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA heading into a start for Detroit today at Toronto. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn is 0-1, 7.31, in three starts for the Chicago White Sox, and MSU product Kendall Graveman has a 5.79 ERA in five relief outings for the ChiSox. … Three Mississippians have already landed on the injured list: Corey Dickerson, Tim Anderson and Brandon Woodruff. Drew Pomeranz, the Ole Miss alum who hasn’t pitched in a big league game since August of 2021, is slated for a rehab appearance today for San Diego’s Triple-A El Paso club.

08 Apr

flashing back

Flash back a hundred years, if you will. In 1923, on Sept. 17 to be precise, Guy Bush made his big league debut for the Chicago Cubs, launching a decorated career that saw the Aberdeen native win 176 games, still the most by a Mississippi native. Fifty years ago, in 1973, seven-time All-Star Dave Parker of Grenada and five-time All-Star Frank White of Greenville broke in with Pittsburgh and Kansas City, respectively. Ten years ago, Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton first appeared on an MLB field and took off on a path that made him the all-time stolen base leader from the state. Those are just a few of the significant anniversaries of significant Mississippians in the majors that warrant celebration in 2023. In 1913, Reb Russell, a Jackson native, made his debut as a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox and threw three shutout innings. An arm injury forced him to become a position player in 1922 with Pittsburgh; he homered in his final game in 1923. Russell is one of just four players in MLB history to win 10 or more games in a season and hit 10 or more homers in a season. Also in 1913, John Howard “Lefty” Merritt, from Plantersville, got into one game (no at-bats) for the New York Giants; he had a long minor league career thereafter but never got another look in the majors. In 1963, Mickey Harrington of Hattiesburg got into one game as a pinch runner for Philadelphia. He never got into another. Seventy years ago, Dave Hoskins, a pioneering black pitcher from Greenwood, made his big league debut for Cleveland at age 35. Forty years ago, Al Jones, a Charleston native, became the only Alcorn State alum to play in the majors when the White Sox called him up. Twenty years ago, Greenwood native Matt Miller debuted for Colorado. He might be remembered by some for getting the final out, as a pitcher for Tulsa, in the final game of the Jackson Generals era at Smith-Wills Stadium in 1999.